Religious Intolerance in the Later Roman Empire - Bad request ...

Towards the end of the letter Valentinian referred to the eight additional exiles as
“associates of his restlessness and error.” 114
Thus it appears that the emperor used a greater quantity of invectives in
Ampelius’ letter, but preferred to use religious invectives (though fewer invectives
overall) in his letter to Maximinus. In a sense, Valentinian was being more technical in
his description of Ursinus’ faults in his letter to Maximinus than he was to Ampelius.
Unfortunately, there is no external evidence of Maximinus’ religion, but the use of
delin quen tum to refer to the Ursinians and the emperor’s more technical language
against the Ursinians may indicate that Maximinus was a Christian, if it is accepted
that it appears to be a feature of the emperors’ technique in letter composition that
non-Christian officials should have the importance of acting against Christian religious
dissidents impressed upon them to a greater degree than was necessary for Christian
officials. There is evidence from Libanius that Ampelius was a pagan and so the
emperor had to employ stronger rhetoric, and rhetoric with a religious flavour, in
that letter than he did in his letter to Maximinus, who, if he were a Christian, would
be able to appreciate the significance and importance, that is the technicalities, of what
Valentinian was saying. 115 As with his letters to the Christian Olybrius and the
(probably) non-Christian Aginatius, in these letters to the pagan Ampelius and to the
(probably) Christian Maximinus, Valentinian gives the impression of being more
intolerant of religious dissidents when writing to pagans than when writing to
Christians.
These two letters were the end of Valentinian's involvement with the Ursinians
and for the remaining four years of his reign he does not appear to have had to involve
himself in the dispute again. They demonstrate that Valentinian consistently had no
wish to create martyrs throughout his dealings with the Ursinians. Although the
rhetoric increased, the sentences imposed were never more than exile; that the imperial
114 inquietudinis suae errorisue consortibus
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